DE Weekly: Pragmatism, Radical Empiricism, & William James
Below is an archived email originally sent on November 17, 2025.
Pragmatism, Radical Empiricism, & William James
Earlier this month, I wrote about the existential humanism put forth by Jean-Paul Sartre in his published 1945 lecture L’Existentialisme est un Humanisme (Existentialism is a Humanism). I compared traditional existentialism with humanist philosophy, marking the differences between the two and where they intersect.
Today, I’d like to do the same with the pragmatism and radical empiricism of American psychologist and philosopher William James.
William James was born in 1842, and was the brother of the writer Henry James. Through his work in the late nineteenth century, he not only wrote The Principles of Psychology (which went on to have a major impact on psychology, even to this day), he also developed the philosophy of pragmatism and radical empiricism.
James’s pragmatism holds that the truth of ideas is determined by the practical consequences of those ideas, in addition to their usefulness.
His radical empiricism builds on traditional empiricism, holding that our relationships (read: perception) with experiences are just as real as the experiences themselves.
These two philosophies led James to reject what is called Cartesian dualism (after René Descartes) in favor of his own pluralistic view of the universe.
Instead of believing that the mind and body are fundamentally different substances like Descartes posited, James believed that the inner world (mind and body) and the outer world (matter) are not entirely separate, but a composite of a function within the same continuum of experience.
Here we are again with the motif of James’s philosophy: experience.
For James, the truth of reality was made up by experiences, particularly the way we interact with the world and our relationship to those experiences.
This is in line with what I wrote in my newsletter two weeks ago:
“Existential humanism is radically more subjective . . . than traditional humanism. In terms of understanding one’s existence, the experience of the individual is at the heart of the project.
And that’s precisely how Sartre viewed human life––as a project. Herein lies how I would really define existentialism: as a philosophy of action.”
As abstract as it might sound to say, “The truth of reality is our experience of it,” what James was advocating for through his pragmatism was exactly the opposite; he was advocating for moving from the abstract to the real, the empirical.
What is empirical must be demonstrable, and for the individual, there is nothing more demonstrable than experience.
In many ways, James was quite a unique thinker. Unlike most post-Hegel Western philosophers, he embraced some key truths of Aristotelian metaphysics, surmising on the first page of Pragmatism that our philosophy should attempt to come to grips with reality rather than subvert it.
In this vein, this is where pragmatism and radical empiricism diverge from existentialism.
However, interestingly enough, they draw a number of the same conclusions about timeless existential questions; namely, freedom, truth, experience, and meaning.
James’s pragmatism emphasized the importance of ideas insofar as they are useful to us, and insofar as we can determine their truth and meaning.
The “meaning” of an idea or an experience we have, then, would boil down to its observable effects. In other words, does this idea we hold “work” for us? Did this experience we had move us closer to our goals?
True to its name, this is an incredibly pragmatic approach to life and the world. Then again, so is existentialism.
The unique brand of pluralism put forth by James (pluralistic pragmatism) emphasizes that there are many possibilities available to us, and we need simply to work to realize those possibilities.
Our lives can become better if we freely try to make it so. We––each of us––have a radical freedom and responsibility to make choices that shape our lives, and each experience should play into that. Each experience should help us to make our futures meaningful to ourselves.
What’s more, according to James, we each have the option to choose whether we want to accept this freedom and responsibility, and use our experiences to find meaning. It’s more a matter of personal faith and belief than anything else.
When it comes to the question of the primary objective of human life, James maintains that the answer, naturally, is happiness.
With that being so, what should we do to move closer to the ultimate goal of happiness? What motivates us to act in that interest?
The answer is not so easy to discern. James held there was no absolute, universal answer but, rather, the answer for each of us is relative to the life we are living.
There is a series of “maybes” in each of our lives ongoing, and it’s up to us to realize those maybes in a sea of possibilities. We will try and fail, and try and fail again.
However, it is precisely this trying that helps us realize that life is worth living––if we just believe in it. Perhaps it is our commitment to the pursuit of happiness that gives us happiness after all, and that same pursuit that gives us meaning.
“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.” –– William James, The Principles of Psychology
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Brandon J. Seltenrich
P.S.––
William James’s brother, Henry James, was quite the accomplished writer himself. I read his novel The American earlier this year and would highly recommend it. Funny enough, I find some of William’s philosophy might have snuck its way into the story.
For more content, follow @TheDailyExist on X. For other social links, click here.
I write this newsletter for free–I love sharing my thoughts with you all, and I’ll continue to do so for free. But if you like what I write and want to show your support, you can always click here to share a tip. Thanks for keeping me going–it’s much appreciated.